What happened at Chicago TARDIS
Dec. 1st, 2013 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swagmancerJust back from Chicago TARDIS, the biggest Doctor Who-specific con in the Midwest. As for what happened there -- so, so many things. But this is the story of one specific thing.
The range of characters people choose to cosplay at this con is staggering. Almost every single Doctor (I never saw any Threes) and many of the Companions and villains, of course, but also minor characters.
Even really minor ones. Such as, for instance, Matilda:
Matilda appears in one episode for all of fifteen seconds. She's memorable because a moment after the shot above, a man bursts in shouting "WHERE'S THE DOCTOR?!" She denies knowing who he's talking about. But then the man lifts up the edge of her skirt with his sword, and this happens:
Pretty memorable. Still, I never expected to see someone cosplaying her. Complete with the painting, which she was carrying around with her. Even better that I was cosplaying the Eleventh Doctor that day. Once I'd seen her a couple of times, I knew I had to ask -- in the least creepy way possible -- whether we could take a picture with me peeking out from under her skirt.
Which is the story of how this happened:
She was more than a sport about it, she was like "HELL YEAH." So, cool, right? Crazy photo ops at cons. Even if nothing more had happened after that, it would have been a highlight of the weekend.
But we kept talking and hanging out after that, and she started talking about the "masque" later, which I (eventually) figured out was referring to the Masquerade, the official con cosplay showcase/competition. She had been hoping to find someone to pop out from under her skirt when she went onstage, but hadn't known how to find them. Since I'd actually come up and asked her, she wanted to know if I'd do it.
I'd never been in a Masquerade before, but I said "HELL YEAH." Anyway, even though I was a little bit nervous, she said she wasn't really in it to compete, so it was low-pressure.
And that's how this happened:
It got a good cheer, and we even got one "WHERE'S THE DOCTOR?!" out of someone in the audience before I appeared.
At the end of the Masquerade, we reported backstage with the rest of the entrants for the announcements of the winners. I was tired, I was hungry, and I was pissed off for reasons that wound up being worked out in the next twenty-four hours. I was questioning why I was even back there. She hadn't even entered to compete.
But then we heard them call "Number Twenty-one." Our number.
We -- really, to be fair I should say she -- won the Best Journeyman Award.
Still, that is the story of how I participated in a winning sketch in my very first Masquerade after getting serendipitously recruited the day of.
The range of characters people choose to cosplay at this con is staggering. Almost every single Doctor (I never saw any Threes) and many of the Companions and villains, of course, but also minor characters.
Even really minor ones. Such as, for instance, Matilda:
Matilda appears in one episode for all of fifteen seconds. She's memorable because a moment after the shot above, a man bursts in shouting "WHERE'S THE DOCTOR?!" She denies knowing who he's talking about. But then the man lifts up the edge of her skirt with his sword, and this happens:
Pretty memorable. Still, I never expected to see someone cosplaying her. Complete with the painting, which she was carrying around with her. Even better that I was cosplaying the Eleventh Doctor that day. Once I'd seen her a couple of times, I knew I had to ask -- in the least creepy way possible -- whether we could take a picture with me peeking out from under her skirt.
Which is the story of how this happened:
She was more than a sport about it, she was like "HELL YEAH." So, cool, right? Crazy photo ops at cons. Even if nothing more had happened after that, it would have been a highlight of the weekend.
But we kept talking and hanging out after that, and she started talking about the "masque" later, which I (eventually) figured out was referring to the Masquerade, the official con cosplay showcase/competition. She had been hoping to find someone to pop out from under her skirt when she went onstage, but hadn't known how to find them. Since I'd actually come up and asked her, she wanted to know if I'd do it.
I'd never been in a Masquerade before, but I said "HELL YEAH." Anyway, even though I was a little bit nervous, she said she wasn't really in it to compete, so it was low-pressure.
And that's how this happened:
It got a good cheer, and we even got one "WHERE'S THE DOCTOR?!" out of someone in the audience before I appeared.
At the end of the Masquerade, we reported backstage with the rest of the entrants for the announcements of the winners. I was tired, I was hungry, and I was pissed off for reasons that wound up being worked out in the next twenty-four hours. I was questioning why I was even back there. She hadn't even entered to compete.
But then we heard them call "Number Twenty-one." Our number.
We -- really, to be fair I should say she -- won the Best Journeyman Award.
Still, that is the story of how I participated in a winning sketch in my very first Masquerade after getting serendipitously recruited the day of.
